Our first day in Beijing and we had a pedicycle tour of the hutong. The Beijing Hutong is made up of lanes or alleys formed by lines of pre-modern siheyuan, four-sided compounds with houses around a courtyard. Low-rise "old Beijing" is a striking contrast to the apartment blocks of "new Beijing".

Last year Nicky came over for coffee:

And 2007 I was photographing two snails: